A West Lothian woman has spoken of the “tremendous honour” she felt at attending the Queen’s funeral.
Lord Lieutenant Moira Niven MBE – who is the Queen’s representative in West Lothian – was among the 2000 people at the service in Westminster Abbey.
And she said she felt massively privileged to attend the funeral, adding Her Majesty “meant a great deal to her”.
Moira spoke to The Courier about what it meant to attend the state funeral, which was watched by millions around the country when it was broadcast on TV.
She said: “The state funeral was an amazing thing to take part in but inevitably when you go to these events, you don’t see it all.
“I was sitting very near the left door where everybody came in, so I saw President Biden and former prime ministers and all the dignitaries come in.
“Clearly the most moving part was when they brought the coffin in and as that passed we all bowed.
“It was very moving and the music was beautiful.
“I had never been to an event like it and I’m sure that I’ll never experience anything like it again. It’s all these things that people say; it’s the passing of an era, everything has changed. I found it deeply moving.”
Moira said she had met Her Majesty on two or three occasions, adding that she was a figure that “embodied everything that’s really good about Britain and about the British”.
She continued: “She presented a very honourable, honest and impressive face to the world I thought and she was clearly much loved both within Britain and abroad.
“She clearly had a deep love for Scotland and I thought it was very telling that the King went to Balmoral to grieve. There is clearly a very special bond there for her and for him.
“It was a tremendous honour. I met lovely people who had different things to say about their experience of meeting the monarch.
“There were 2000 people there and I was one of them. That was an amazing thing to experience.”
Moira said that in her role as Lord Lieutenant for West Lothian, she can see there was always a great strength of feeling in the area for the monarch.
She continued: “I had been appointed to represent the Queen in West Lothian and it meant a lot to me because as I go out and about and meet people in the community.
“It’s quite clear there was a really deep affection for her and she was a very impressive person when you met her.
“I remember she asked me if there was a lot of volunteering in West Lothian, and I thought it was a really good question.
“When I met her at Buckingham Palace she was 93 and she just seemed to have this very lively interest in people and places and I was able to tell her we have wonderful levels of volunteering in West Lothian.”
Moira said that aside from her role as Lord Lieutenant, the Queen has always held a very special place in her heart.
She said: “She meant a great deal to me because all my life the Queen as been there.
“Another side to it is my mother is the same age as the Queen and my father was the same age as the Duke of Edinburgh so they had parallel but very different lives, but held in great respect.
“When I met her she spent the whole evening on her feet talking to everybody and welcomed each individual into the room where there was a reception and each person was brought down to speak to her.
“I felt a real warmth and interest from her and I thought, my goodness, how many people can do that at her age?
“She clearly had a very deep faith and felt she had made a promise to serve the people and she certainly did that with her whole heart.”
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